I didn’t hear the beginning of this, but in a move that can only be described as a fit of irony, the US has apparently instituted a firearms ban in Iraq, while ignoring some more important issues (to the people of Iraq anyway) like clean food and water. The amnesty period has already passed and there are still firearms all over. Gosh, you think?
The US imposes a ban that even in a time of peace 99% of it’s own citizens wouldn’t put up with (ask any American on the street if they would give up their “constitutional right” to bear arms (and arm bears?) and see what they say to you. Combine this with the fact that the US right to bear ams was created for exactly the situation that exists in Iraq right now, being able to protect themselves from the gov’t (I think anyway, that’s how I understand it, please correct me if I’m wrong).
So if the shoe were on the other foot, and say, the Russians came to the US, ousted the evil bad government, and then told the American people to give up their weapons to protect the peace process, would they? Hell no I hear the screaming. Yes, I know that the situation is a bit different, but from the point of view of the Iraqi people they have been liberated/invaded by a possibly friendly force who don’t seem to be all that eager to leave and let them get to the job of rebuilding their country, and now they are being told to give up their only means of protection?
Now that said, according to this baghdad blogger they are allowed to keep two weapons, and as it was noted on the news last night, it’s a catch-22. The people of Iraq (rightly) don’t want to give up their weapons until the security situation improves, and the security situation isn’t going to improve until there are less weapons around. I’m all for getting rid of useless weapons that IMHO cause more harm than good, but in this case I completely see why they are being kept.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the irony of this.
In similar yet different news, it seems that according to this Philadelphia Inquirer article:
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A third of the American public believes U.S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. Twenty-two percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons.
But such weapons have not been found in Iraq and were not used.
Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But most of the Sept. 11 terrorists were Saudis; none was an Iraqi.
Why does this not surprise me? Oh right, the massive amounts of mis-information given to the people, the media, and spread around to justify a war that was most likely more for oil and revenge than the proported purposes given by the government of the only superpower on earth. A superpower that has been changing it’s tune as time goes, then changing it some more.